ATP Oil & Gas Wins Deep-Water Drilling Permit; Shares Surge

March 18 (Bloomberg) -- ATP Oil & Gas Corp. won a U.S.
permit to drill in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, the
third company cleared to resume work halted last year after BP
Plc’s oil spill. The company surged in New York trading.

ATP, based in Houston, will be able to restart work on a
well in 4,000 feet of water about 90 miles (145 kilometers)
south of Venice, Louisiana, the Bureau of Ocean Energy
Management, Regulation and Enforcement said today in a
statement.

“It certainly brings a lot more clarity to our production
profile for this year,” Chief Financial Officer Albert Reese
said in a phone interview after the announcement. “It’s a great
way to end Friday.”

ATP rose 81 cents, or 4.6 percent, to $18.31 at 4:30 p.m.
in New York Stock Exchange Composite trading, after climbing as
much as 11 percent, the steepest intraday gain in seven months.

Noble Energy Inc. won the first deep-water drilling permit
on Feb. 28, followed by BHP Billiton Ltd. on March 11. All three
companies are using Helix Energy Solutions Group Inc. in case of
a well blowout, according to the regulator.

‘Ready, Eager’

ATP will use a stationary drilling platform for its well,
while Noble and BHP Billiton won permits for mobile offshore
units, the company said in a statement.

“We are ready and eager to return to work,” Chief
Executive Officer T. Paul Bulmahn said in the statement. ATP’s
well was drilled to about 12,000 feet (3,658 meters) and casing
was set in 2009, the company said.

The bureau, part of the Interior Department, had said the
lack of equipment to plug damaged wells and collect spilled oil
was an obstacle that prevented the agency from issuing permits
until last month.

The Helix system competes with a process developed by Exxon
Mobil Corp., the world’s largest oil company, with BP,
ConocoPhillips, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Chevron Corp.